If you want to throw a party, you always invite those guys who can party like hell. For a party with Scandinavian melodic death metal as its central theme, you’d better always invite Mikael, Peter, Jesper, Nicklas and Daniel. They will probably bring some of the tunes that are on their first album, Days Of The Lost. In the meantime, the guys who call themselves The Halo Effect have already released a second album, March Of The Unheard.
If you have a lot of old-school Scandinavian melodic death metal records in your collection, such as In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork, Arch Enemy – and I certainly do – then you won’t come home from a bare journey if you listen to The Halo Effect. Because the guys mentioned above were or are still part of those bands. Nice, isn’t it. When I see and hear the guys playing music I often think “are they ever home?” Take Mr. Stanne, for example. Active in The Halo Effect but also in Dark Tranquillity (who also just released a new record, Endtime Signals), Grand Cadaver and recently he also took the microphone for Cemetery Skyline. Well, some people like to be busy all the time, always away from home and always on the move. Better let them be, especially if it results in this type of music, you won’t hear me whining or complaining.
Not all songs are equally strong, but I’m not going to complain about that. There are enough songs that would humble many a melodic death metal band. Take What We Become for example. Nice, aggressive throat here, and driving drumming with nicely smoothly woven solos in between. Or Forever Astray with that typical blast beat that only Mr. Svensson can bring so perfectly. A song in which the clean vocals of Mr. Stanne are perfectly embedded. Well done!
In between, there are also, very classically of course, two instrumentals to glue things together, or to neatly round the album off. This Curse Of Silence sounds very In Flames and immediately forms a good bridge to the title track, March Of The Unheard. Between Directions is a mixture of typical The Halo Effect parts and sensitive clean vocals that are masterfully supplemented with strings. Very strong! Second instrumental Coda closes the album in a very fitting way, largely consisting of main themes of the songs that have been heard during the album.
March Of The Unheard is simply a strong, tight, melodic death metal record with a hefty nod to the past. It is nothing new, nothing fresh or fruity, but simply rock solid. That is often how we like it. The Halo Effect can be labelled as the champion of the old traditions. Order it, for god’s sake!

Score:
90/100
Label:
Nuclear Blast Records, 2024
Tracklisting:
- Conspire To Deceive
- Detonate
- Our Channel To The Darkness
- Cruel Perception
- What We Become
- This Curse Of Silence
- March Of The Unheard
- Forever Astray
- Between Directions
- A Death That Becomes Us
- The Burning Point
- Coda
Line-up:
- Mikael Stanne – Vocals
- Jesper Strömblad – Guitars
- Nicklas Engelin – Guitars
- Peter Iwers – Bass guitar
- Daniel Svensson – Drums
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